


Day 9: Ocean

by choomchoom



Series: Femslash February 2020 [5]
Category: Transformers (IDW 2019)
Genre: Aegus IV, F/F, Femslash February
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:35:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22640353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/choomchoom/pseuds/choomchoom
Summary: Nautica takes Road Rage back to Aegus IV. It's so, so much better with her.
Relationships: Nautica/Road Rage
Series: Femslash February 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1620400
Kudos: 9





	Day 9: Ocean

“Are you sure I can do this?”

Nautica turned toward Road Rage, scrutinized her. She was wearing the helmet Nautica had ordered that would protect her optics and intake from the brackish ocean, but her posture was angled toward the water and her tone had been too cautious – she wasn’t scared, she was giving Nautica an out. “What are you really asking?”

“Are – are you sure you want me to do this?”

Nautica reached out and cupped Road Rage’s jaw, careful not to jostle the helmet. “I wouldn’t have invited you if I wasn’t.”

“But now that you’re here – are you sure?”

“I’m sure.” Nautica placed a gentle kiss on the helmet, which made Road Rage’s expression melt into a fond smile. “Now come on – we haven’t got long.”

That dealt with, Nautica turned to the hole in the ice before her. It was the same one she’d used to exit the ocean the final time, after her mission here, and it felt fitting that this be where she plunge back in – not alone, this time.

She and Road Rage were on Aegus IV, the neutral planet in the systemwide dispute that had practically demolished two planets in a nuclear war. Nautica had been trying to find a way to communicate with the native life forms on Aegus IV to see if they might be capable of spearheading a truce between the other locals. She’d failed, technically, which had stung, but it wasn’t through any fault of her own – she’d concluded that the life forms were quite content with their life under the ocean, blissfully unaware of the rest of the galaxy. They’d allowed Nautica into their world and existed around her without aggression or fear, but they hadn’t seemed curious about her. There was no way that she would ever have been able to convince them to pay attention to the outside world, let alone broker a peace treaty.

That had been her first xenorelations mission. Ever since then, part of her had felt like she’d never truly left this ocean. The life forms here had showed her a way to exist that Nautica didn’t think any other Cybertronian could truly understand.

Road Rage quite likely wouldn’t. Nautica wanted to show it to her anyway.

“Are you ready?” she asked.

Road Rage nodded. Nautica refrained from calling her out on the trepidation in her optics. Instead she jumped, transformed in midair, and plunged beneath the surface.

The water was cool and the high salt content tingled against her plating. She barely had time to register the first flashes of greeting from the native life forms before she heard the splash of Road Rage entering the water behind her.

Nautica transformed out her periscope and felt Road Rage grab on to it. They’d traveled like this underwater before, though nowhere quite like here. She started to move, taking them further out beneath the ice, away from the light of the sun. The native lifeforms flashed with a familiar greeting, bright-dim-brighter, one by one as they moved.

She pinged Road Rage’s internal comm. <<See that flashing pattern they’re all doing? I’m pretty sure it’s a greeting.>>

<<Watch this, then.>>

It was with a little bit of dread that Nautica turned her periscope toward Road Rage. She was built more for problem-solving than diplomacy, both of them knew that, and Nautica didn’t know what that would mean here and now.

Road Rage modulated her optic intensity – bright-dim-brighter – and the life forms around them exploded into a flurry of bioluminescent communication, too fast for Nautica to track. Nautica stopped in shock. She didn’t have the same kind of control over her biolights in alt mode, and it had never occurred to her to come down here in root mode when she was so much better at navigating the water in alt.

<<That’s quite a welcome,>> Road Rage said. <<I think I can see why you like it here.>>

Nautica didn’t know how to communicate the warmth that Road Rage’s statement produced in her spark, in words or gestures or light. She hadn’t really dared to hope that Road Rage would appreciate what life was like down here, let alone understand.

Nautica stopped moving when they reached a larger crowd of the life forms and hovered in place. She wasn’t looking, but Road Rage must have done the optic version of the greeting again because the life forms all exploded in light, nearly blinding with this many of them. They’d never reacted to Nautica like that – they’d never reacted to her much at all, and she’d learned to love the peace of it. This, though – this acceptance, this warmth – was all the more beautiful.

Road Rage curled closer toward Nautica as they watched. The combination of her warmth and the native life forms’ distant communication made Nautica feel solid in a way that she hadn’t felt since she’d left this ocean, and maybe hadn’t felt ever before.

<<We need to start heading back soon if we’re going to make the pickup,>> Road Rage said after a while, sounding apologetic about it. <<Did you ever figure out how they say goodbye?>>

<<Flash at your brightest level, then modulate from complete darkness back to baseline for this environment in five steps.>>

Nautica turned her periscope to watch Road Rage do it, and saw the life forms swirling around them respond in kind with her forward sensors. She turned around with a warmth in her spark that she expected would last a long time.

Road Rage kept flashing her optics with the farewell, and Nautica watched the life forms reply with the same as she made her way back to the hole in the ice.

Road Rage was waiting for her at the surface and snagged her arm mid-transformation, pulling Nautica up before she got any of the fluid in her intake. That was an unexpected bonus – she’d been coughing up salt crystals for weeks after last time.

She and Road Rage collapsed against each other on the uneven surface of the ice, a few feet from the hole. Road Rage fiddled with the helmet and removed it, leaning over to kiss Nautica on the cheek. “Thank you for showing me that.”

“I can’t believe you’re thanking me. That was so much better with you than it was alone.” Nautica reached around to hug Road Rage properly. Road Rage’s arms secured themselves around her, and their frames kept each other warm until it was time to port back to the ship.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm working off of this prompt list. Fanfic is happening every other day https://choomchoom.tumblr.com/post/190496147157/femslashfeb-any-world-any-fandom-any
> 
> I am sort of taking prompts for this series - feel free to suggest stuff, but I won't make any promises because the schedule is already a lot.


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